War and Raids

The Realm map Open

Open your journal (F3), go to its Faction tab and choose Realm: the map shows who holds each place, in the holder's colours. Every place has a land marker, and the land around it belongs to the nearest marker. A crown marks a capital, and a banner marks a faction's seat in the open. No Faction tab in your journal? /faction opens the same map.

What land gives

Land earns nothing by itself. Every claimed home that stands on it pays a weekly property tax: on a hold's land at the hold's one tax rate, the same rate it takes from inn beds (0 to 30%), and on land another faction holds at the rate its leader sets. A home in a fief, one of the County's four settlements of Applewatch, Aleswell, Greenwood and Mountain Watch, sends a quarter of its tax to the fief's own treasury (see the nobility). The rest goes to the treasury of whoever holds the land, less the Imperial tithe: Bruma is a county of the Empire, so a tenth of the property tax a faction keeps from Cyrodiil land goes to the Imperial Legion's treasury, which pays none on its own forts. Holding a hold's capital means holding the hold.

Who speaks for a faction

A faction's leader, or a hold's ruler (a Jarl, a Count or a Chieftain), acts for it in the realm from the Realm and War pages of the Faction tab in the journal (F3), or through /faction. There are no chat commands for war.

Capital Open

A hold chooses one of its own territories as its capital; until it does, Bruma is the County's. Any other faction chooses a territory it holds, or makes the spot where its leader stands its seat, such as a guildhall. A capital can move once every 7 days, and never during a war. A faction musters at its capital to declare war.

Peace treaty Open

One leader offers peace from the War page for 1 to 8 weeks, and the other side's leader accepts or refuses. A treaty costs nothing, and everyone online hears when one is sworn. While it holds, neither side can declare war on the other. It runs its full length: there is no breaking it early.

What a treaty does not cover

A treaty stops declarations of war, not raids. Two factions already at war cannot swear one; they make peace instead (see below).

Declaring war

A leader or ruler declares from the War page, naming the faction and the territories they mean to take. To declare:

• 10 members of each side online
• every online member of the declaring faction gathered at its capital
• 10,000 gold from the declaring faction's treasury
• no treaty between the two, and no other war the declarer started still running

Protection

A faction is safe from declarations for its first 7 days; holds and strongholds are never new. After a war ends, the same attacker waits 14 days before declaring on the same faction again.

Notice and battle windows

Everyone online hears the declaration at once. Fighting happens only in 3 battle windows of 2 hours each, which the attacker picks from the server's evening battle times (at present 00:00 UTC each day), beginning at least 7 days after the declaration. Outside a window, nothing can be taken.

Taking the land

During a window, attackers who hold a named territory's land marker (within about 21 metres) for 5 minutes with no defender standing there take it. One living defender at the marker resets the count, and defenders take lost land back the same way. Only fighters wearing their faction's uniform count, and the downed do not count.

War to the death

The attacker may propose it; it applies only if the defender's leader accepts before the first window opens. Then an enemy's killing blow on contested land, during a battle window, ends that character for good. In any other war a fall goes through the usual down state.

How a war ends

• the attacker holds every territory it named
• the last battle window closes; land taken stays taken
• the leaders make peace, with a tribute of gold from either treasury if they agree one
• the defender surrenders, and the named land passes to the attacker
• the attacker withdraws, and nothing changes hands

Taking a hold

Land that is taken changes hands on the Realm map, and its property tax goes to the new holder. Taking a hold's capital takes the hold: its officials lose their offices, and the conqueror's leader appoints the new ruler and court.

Sending a raid

A leader or ruler sends a raid from the War page on a territory another faction holds. There is no fee and no notice, but 5 of the land's owners must be online, and they are warned the moment it starts. A raid lasts 30 minutes, and the same land then rests for 3 days.

Pillage

During the raid, raiders break into claimed homes on that land through their doors: no lock holds. Each home gives up 3 random items from its containers and 15% of their gold, once per raid, and so does each container on its own. Nothing worn and no keys are taken, and the owner is told.

What is safe

Gold in the bank is never raided, and no territory changes hands. A peace treaty does not stop a raid.

From party to raid

A party holds 6. Invite a seventh and it becomes a raid of up to 12 (/party invite, /party accept, /party leave). Skill gain is halved for everyone in a raid, except while standing inside a raid ruin the raid has claimed.

Raid ruins

Silorn, in Skingrad County, and Bawn, in Bravil County, are Ayleid ruins built for a raid: each has two masters to defeat, and it takes up to 12. There is no minimum, but a small party will find them very hard. The boss dungeons Niryastare and Telepe take a party of up to 6.

Setting out

All four are reached as expeditions from the Expedition Boards in three halls: the Synod Conclave and the Fighters Guild in Bruma, and Frostcrag Spire. The group comes home to the hall it left from. The party leader claims the ruin for 60 minutes, one group at a time.

Harder, and richer

A raid ruin's masters are stronger than a boss dungeon's and bring guards of their own, and the ruin holds more enemies. Masters and their chests give more boss loot, and a better chance of an Ayleid piece than a boss dungeon's; above Novice the pieces run finer too. The harder the difficulty you choose, from Novice to Master, the better the chance and the pieces.

Coming home

Once the last master falls, the expedition heads home 10 minutes later, with a warning 2 minutes before. Each member then waits 60 minutes before entering that ruin again.